[Dixielandjazz] Tony Martin - Still Ticking at 95.

[Stephen G Barbone]

Not Dixieland but surely OKOM. He is the last man standing from a  
golden era and still ticking. And best of all, his wife since 1948,  
Cyd Charisse, is still ticking too.
Cheers,
Steve Barbone

NY Times - January 31, 2008 - By Stephen Holden
No Tomorrow? 95 Years of Yesterdays

The singer Tony Martin may be his generation’s Last Man Standing. A  
belting crooner of the old school whose 1949 hit, “There’s No  
Tomorrow,” adapted from “O Sole Mio,” predated “It’s Now or Never,”  
Elvis Presley’s version of the same Italian melody (with different  
lyrics) by 11 years, he turned 95 last December.

The fellow crooners — Russ Columbo, Bing Crosby, Perry Como — whose  
names he dropped on Tuesday at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency, where he  
opened a five-night engagement, were his contemporaries. So were Judy  
Garland, Hedy Lamarr and Lana Turner, his co-stars in the 1941 movie  
musical “Ziegfeld Girl.” To those “three lovely ladies,” he dedicated  
his rendition of “You Stepped Out of a Dream,” a production number  
from that movie in which he serenaded them as they emerged from the  
mist to descend a gilded 60-foot-high spiral staircase.

Mr. Martin may be 95, but his voice is more or less intact. Time has  
certainly taken its toll. He no longer belts. There is a wobble in his  
vibrato, and high notes are elusive. But the essential Tony Martin  
sound was still discernible on Tuesday. Fifty years ago that sound,  
with its unusually rich timbre was synonymous with virility.

It was said that Vaughn Monroe, who was a year older than Mr. Martin,  
sang with “muscles in his throat.” Translated into contemporary gym  
lingo, you might say that Mr. Martin could bench press 250 pounds to  
Mr. Monroe’s 300.

Accompanied by a trio that included Dick Parent on piano, Jerry Bruno  
on bass and Bobby Shankin on drums, Mr. Martin ran through many of his  
old hits, including “I Get Ideas,” an adaptation of the Argentine  
tango “Adiós, Muchachos,” which was considered racy in its day. (“When  
we are dancing and you’re dangerously near me/I get ideas” go the  
insinuating lyrics.) In 1950, some may recall, it was Mr. Martin who  
had the American hit version of “La Vie en Rose,” which he also sang  
on Tuesday.

A table away from ringside sat Mr. Martin’s wife, the dancer and  
actress Cyd Charisse, whom he married in 1948. The couple could be an  
advertisement for the rejuvenating benefits of marital stability.

Tony Martin appears through Saturday at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency,  
540 Park Avenue, at 61st Street, feinsteinsattheregency.com; (212)  
339-4095.